Kopimism

Today, information is ownable. This entails a complex/costly system of statutory regulations that attempt to prohibit the transmission of information and limit our powers of free speech in order to protect the financial interests of "content owners".

There is a fundamentally different way, hereafter referred to as Kopimism, that is at odds with today's complex and self-defeating system of intellectual property. Kopimism is simpler, more efficient, and arguably better for everybody in the long run.

Kopimism is so good because it is in harmony with (and better exploits) the natural laws of reality. Information -- a dual of matter -- is intangible, inexhaustible, and illuminating. As matter wants to fall, information wants to be free. Kopimism takes advantage of these sacred (God given) properties of reality for the benefit of humanity.

We have an opportunity to introduce Kopimism to the mainstream by propagating this normative way and understanding of Kopimism that arrises from our understanding of reality. Our mission is to unite the factions and transition the world towards a society of complete information freedom through the transformation of our own way of being.

News

* Meeting Every Sunday at 1pm at Sudo Room
* Brainstorm and meet to discuss, Dec 30th 2012
* Question for Dec 30th: What does Kopimism have to say about evesdropping secret channels? Why?

General Info

• IRC: ##kopimism (not #kopimism)
• URL: http://kopimism.org (not up yet)
• Meeting: At SudoRoom, Sunday afternoons at 1:00pm

Kopimist Credo

• I do not copyright my work nor patent my inventions, but publish them in the public domain unless I wish to keep them private
• I encourage others to copy/modify/publish/implement my work
• I give credit where it is due to the best of my ability
• I demand the right to copy/modify/publish/implement any information presented to me for anyone who wants it
• I respect the privacy of others

Discussion Points

• Copyright, Patents, and Trademarks
• DRM encoding/decoding
• Ethics, or what is not allowed
• California Pirate Party
• Radio wave regulations

Suggestions for Background Readings (to select from)

John Perry Barlow, The Economy of Ideas

Pam Samuelson, The Copyright Grab

Yochai Benkler, The Wealth of Networks

Madhavi Sunder, IP3

Margaret Chon, Intellectual Property and the Development Divide

James Boyle, A Politics of Intellectual Property: Environmentalism For the Net?

Amy Kapczynski, The Access to Knowledge Mobilization and the New Politics of Intellectual Property

Related Information Society Declarations

Internet Rights & Principles Charter

Free Culture Forum Charter for Innovation, Creativity, & Access to Knowledge

Berlin Declaration on Open Access

A2K Treaty

The Cape Town Open Education Declaration

Trans-Atlantic Consumer Dialogue -- Paris Accord

Geneva Declaration on the Future of WIPO

UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression Internet Report

Digital Due Process

World Summit on the Information Society Tunis Agenda

Links

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Missionary_Church_of_Kopimism
• http://www.reddit.com/r/Kopimism/ (we might want to lead the discussion on Reddit)
• http://craphound.com/content/download/
• http://www.techdirt.com/blog/casestudies/articles/20121209/07431921317/psy-makes-81-million-ignoring-copyright-infringements-gangnam-style.shtml (interesting reading)
• http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/fiction/accelerando/accelerando.html (a novel related to issues of patents)
• http://kopimistsamfundet.se/english/ (Swedish Church of Kopimism)
• http://movingtofreedom.org/2006/10/06/thomas-jefferson-on-patents-and-freedom-of-ideas/ (Thomas Jefferson on patents)
• http://sudoroom.org/wiki/Sudo_room/Compact (The Sudo Room Compact)
• http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-57559890-93/instagram-apologizes-to-users-we-wont-sell-your-photos/ (talking point: how would Instagram's proposed - and now retracted - right to use your photos for commercial purpose be interpreted from a Kopimist perspective?)